Monday, April 28, 2008

Yesterday I didn't hit the streets with a bag of cans, or sharpies in my pocket. Yesterday I went out with a bucket containing a brush, a folder of copies, and a can of wheatpaste.

Wheatpaste is one of those things that is fantastic because it's so simple and so cheap- who would have thunk that wheat flour and water, when heated, makes a great glue?

Well, apparently someone thunk it because it's been around for a long time.

The image I pasted up five times on my regular turf between Campo Grande and Praça da Sé (ie within walking distance of my house) is a drawing I did about twelve years ago called Computer Freak.

Computer Freak has an interesting story. I drew it as I was recovering from jet lag after returning from a nine month international journey that ended in Thailand. I went from a very warm and green place to a very cold and slushy place- I arrived in Boston in March and my brother whisked me away to his house in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. This saved me from the worst of the culture shock, but there wasn't much to be done about the nearly 12 hour time difference except try to sleep it off. This took more days than it should have, and during my more lucid moments I did this drawing. The original is tiny, about 4 by 6 inches, and as you can see crammed with detail. Originally the guy had electrodes going right into his head but I thought that was a little over the top so I removed them. I didn't actually buy a computer for another couple years after I did the drawing.

Despite its tiny size, I discovered that it enlarges really well, and I poster-printed a version of it about a year or so ago on nine sheets of paper and hung it on my wall. When I started to get into the sticker thing and was checking out street-art related groups on Flickr, I saw this image by d3d! and was... inspired. d3d! was also the first guy to tell me what wheatpaste was all about. So I printed out another version of the Computer Freak and had some copies made at my local copyshop. And then they sat around for months- until yesterday.

Another thing I did for the first time was include my markuza.com address along with the images, which makes me cringe a little bit but this has been part of the plan for a long time and it's time to get on with it. Let's see if I get a little spikie in the traffic reports for markuza.com. Maybe someone will even want a copy of the Computer Freak postcard, it's available for free after all.

This is one of the most popular and often-changing spots in the center of the city for graffiti- here is work by Limpo and Prem as well as mine. As you can see Limpo also posted his email- I guess he's gotten a bunch of commissions that way.

This one got hidden by a street vendor

This picture shows how the image is really too small to compete with big pieces like this one by Mônica- who is one of the only female street artists in the city (Prem's another one)

I also discovered that one of my street drawings is no more- or rather it's hidden behind another piece of scrap wood on this makeshift wall.